The republican calendar and era were used until the end of 1805, when Napoleon restored the Gregorian calendar and its era; thus 11 Nivose, an XIV, was the last day of the republican system. But the republican idea of a new calendar and a new era is not dead; it has so little died out that a calendar and era devised by a French mathematician and sociologist in 1852 is now actually used, not only in France, but in England, and also in Brazil, by the followers of this reformer.[55] Footnote 55: In this Positivist Calendar the saints of the old calendar and the agricultural produce of the revolutionary calendars are replaced by great men and women; typical great men, from Moses and Homer to Descartes and Bichat, giving their names to the 13 months, each of 28 days. There is an extra day at the end of the year, and two extra days in leap-year. This system has the advantage of the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of the month always falling on the same day of the week. The Positivist era dates from 1789; and the followers of Auguste Comte, in England, France and elsewhere, thus date 1911 as the ‘year 123 of the Great Crisis.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXIII HOW THE METRIC SYSTEM WORKS IN FRANCE Napoleon, who had witnessed the rigorous measures of the Republican government to enforce its metric system, said of it: It violently broke up the customs and habits of the people as might have been done by some Greek or Tartar tyrant who, with uplifted rod, wills to be obeyed in all his decrees, regulated by his prejudices or his interests, without any regard for those of the conqueror.... It was tormenting the people for trifles.[56] Footnote 56: The full French text of Napoleon’s opinion is given in _Against the Metric System_, by Herbert Spencer (Williams and Norgate, price 3_d._). But he was too wise to disturb trade again by any change in the material standards, however objectionable; he kept these, while abolishing the unpopular decimal series. The decree of February 12, 1812, accordingly ordered that weights and measures, while being strictly in accordance with the existing standard units, should have ‘such fractions and multiples as were generally used in trade and were best suited to the needs of the people.’ A double-metre became the new Toise, divided, like the old toise, into 6 feet of 12 inches. The Aune was to be 1·2 metre. The hectolitre and the litre were divided sexdecimally, one-fourth of the hectolitre becoming a double-Boisseau differing very slightly from the old measure of the same name. The half-kilogramme became the Livre, divided into 16 ounces, these being divided into eighths. The Quintal was 100 livres, the millier 1000 livres, the tonneau 2000 livres.